Twilight: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 3

slow motion, catching on his lips and eyelashes. The only sound was the crackle of their footsteps and the occasional hiss and rustle when a clump of snow fell from a branch. If it weren’t for the horrific circumstances, it would’ve been a wonderfully peaceful scene.
    Detective Parsons stopped when they drew parallel to the big boulder in the woods. “This the place?”
Bo nodded. “Yes. We ran probably fifty yards or so through the woods before we found the thicket where we saw the body.”
“Can you find the spot again?”
“We can find it,” Dean told her.
“All right. Lead the way.” Tucking a strand of dark blonde hair behind her ear, she glanced at her colleagues. “Ramirez, get ready with the camera.”
The tall, hulking man gave a curt nod. One of the uniformed officers, Boone, tightened her grip on the large cooler she carried. No one but Parsons had spoken more than two words since Sam, Bo and Dean had first met them in the Sunset Lodge office. Their watchful silence made Sam nervous.
Dean moved to Detective Parsons’ side, to lead the way. The group walked in silence for a few minutes, until the rhododendron thicket came into view. Dean and the police approached the clump of shrubs. Sam hung back, hoping he wouldn’t be required to go any closer. He didn’t want to see the body again.
“That’s where the body is,” Dean said, pointing into the depths of the bushes. He turned and gestured at the drug store bag, the edge of which barely stuck up above the mounting snow. “And there’s the bag and prescription bottle. We left everything right where we found it.”
“We searched out here before, when Harry Norton went missing,” Boone spoke up. “Not this exact spot, maybe, but I know we were in this general area. Didn’t find anything at that time.”
“It was snowing then,” said the other uniformed officer, a tall, fidgety young man whose name Sam couldn’t remember. “Five inches by the time we got up here. That’s probably why we didn’t see the body or prescription then.”
“It’s snowing now,” Boone pointed out.
The younger officer shrugged. “Yeah, but it wasn’t snowing when these guys found the body and prescription bottle. Makes it a lot easier to spot things if they’re not covered with snow.”
Boone nodded. “True. Of course, whatever happened might’ve happened since we were out here.”
“All right, that’s enough.” Parsons reached into her pocket and pulled on a pair of latex gloves as Ramirez began snapping photos of the bag and bottle and surrounding area. She turned a keen gaze to Bo. “Did any of you touch anything?”
“No.” Bo moved closer to Sam, shoulders hunched. “Sam stepped on the bottle, which is how we found it in the first place, but no one touched it after that.”
Crouching on the ground, Parsons carefully brushed the snow away from the bottle. “And how exactly did the three of you come to be out here? This is a pretty long way off the trail.”
Sam, Bo and Dean exchanged nervous looks. They’d dreaded this question. Telling law enforcement personnel that they’d followed a creature from another dimension into the woods and saw it kill someone wasn’t likely to go over well. Nevertheless, a brief discussion after Carl had radioed the police resulted in the unanimous decision to tell the truth. After all, they’d done nothing wrong and had nothing to hide.
Bo cleared his throat. “I believe the Bledsoes told you why Sam, Dean and I are here.”
“Yes, they did.” Parsons held out a hand. The other officer—Torrence, Sam suddenly remembered—took two Ziploc bags from the cooler and gave them to her. “I did a quick Google search before we left to come up here. You’ve made quite a name for yourselves investigating these so-called interdimensional gateways. Is that what you think you’ve found here?”
The detective’s expression didn’t change, nor did the neutral tone of her voice, but Sam felt her skepticism and suspicion all the same. “We’re not sure yet what exactly the guests here have seen.”
“But you’ve seen it too, yes?” Fishing a pencil out of her purse, Parsons slipped the point under the edge of the prescription bottle’s cap, lifted it from its nest of snow and pine needles and dropped it into a baggie. She met Sam’s gaze, one eyebrow arched. “You saw this…thing, you followed it into the woods, and it led you straight to a body which just might be a missing Sunset Lodge employee.